# Dashboards in Grafana version 12
` to the end. To view fiscal periods, use `fQ (fiscal quarter)` and `fy (fiscal year)` time units.
The plus operator enables you to step forward in time, relative to now. For example, you can use this feature to look at predicted data in the future.
The following table provides example relative ranges.
| Example relative range | From | To |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Last 5 minutes | `now-5m` | `now` |
| The day so far | `now/d` | `now` |
| This week | `now/w` | `now/w` |
| This week so far | `now/w` | `now` |
| This month | `now/M` | `now/M` |
| This month so far | `now/M` | `now` |
| Previous Month | `now-1M/M` | `now-1M/M` |
| This year so far | `now/Y` | `now` |
| This Year | `now/Y` | `now/Y` |
| Previous fiscal year | `now-1y/fy` | `now-1y/fy` |
**Note**
Grafana Alerting does not support the following syntaxes:
`now+n` for future timestamps.
`now-1n/n` for *start of n until end of n*, because this is an absolute timestamp.
**Common time range controls**
The dashboard and panel time controls have a common user interface. The following describes common time range controls.
+ Current time range, also called the *time picker*, shows the time range currently displayed in the dashboard or panel you are viewing. Hover your cursor over the field to see the exact time stamps in the range and their source (such as the local browser time). Click the *current time range* to change it. You can change the current time using a *relative time range*, such as the last 15 minutes, or an absolute time range, such as `2020-05-14 00:00:00` to `2020-05-15 23:59:59`.
+ The **relative time range** can be selected from the **Relative time ranges** list. You can filter the list using the input field at the top. Some examples of time ranges include *Last 30 minutes*, *Last 12 hours*, *Last 7 days*, *Last 2 years*, *Yesterday*, *Day before yesterday*, *This day last week*, *Today so far*, *This week so far*, and *This month so far*.
+ **Absolute time range** can be set in two ways: Typing exact time values or relative time values into the **From** and **To** fields and clicking **Apply time range**, or clicking a date or date range from the calendar displayed when you click the **From** or **To** field. To apply your selections, click **Apply time range**. You can also choose from a list of recently used absolute time ranges.
+ **Semi-relative time range** can be selected in the absolute time range settings. For example, to show activity since a specific date, you can choose an absolute time for the start time, and a relative time (such as `now`) for the end time.
Using a semi-relative time range, as time progresses, your dashboard will automatically and progressively zoom out to show more history and fewer details. At the same rate, as high data resolution decreases, historical trends over the entire time period will become more clear.
**Note**
Alerting does not support semi-relative time ranges.
+ **Zoom out** by selecting the zoom out icon (or by using Cmd\$1Z or Ctrl\$1Z as a keyboard shortcut). This increases the view, showing a larger time range in the dashboard or panel visualization.
+ **Zoom in** by selecting a time range you want to view on the graph in the visualization.
**Note**
Zooming in is only applicable to graph visualizations.
**Refresh dashboards**
Click the **Refresh dashboard** icon to immediately run every query on the dashboard and refresh the visualizations. Grafana cancels any pending requests when you trigger a refresh.
By default, Grafana does not automatically refresh the dashboard. Queries run on their own schedule according to the panel settings. However, if you want to regularly refresh the dashboard, then click the down arrow next to the **Refresh dashboard** icon and then select a refresh interval.
**Control the time range using a URL**
You can control the time range of a dashboard by providing the following query parameters in the dashboard URL.
+ `from` defines the lower limit of the time range, specified in ms epoch, or [relative time](#v12-dash-setting-dashboard-time-range).
+ `to` defines the upper limit of the time range, specified in ms epoch, or relative time.
+ `time` and `time.window` defines a time range from `time-time.window/2` to `time+time.window/2`. Both parameters should be specified in ms. For example `?time=1500000000000&time.window=10000` results in 10s time range from 1499999995000 to 1500000005000.
# Building dashboards
*** button in the diff view. Selecting either of these will prompt you to confirm the restoration.
After restoring to a previous version, a new version will be created containing the same exact data as the previous version, only with a different version number. This is indicated in the **Notes column** for the row in the new dashboard version. This ensures your previous dashboard versions are not affected by the change.
# Managing dashboard links
**.
The playlist displays each dashboard for the time specified in the `Interval` field, set when creating or editing a playlist. After a playlist starts, you can control it using the navigation bar at the top of your screen.
| Mode | Description |
| --- | --- |
| Normal mode | [\[See the AWS documentation website for more details\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/grafana/latest/userguide/v12-dash-managing-playlists.html) |
| TV mode | [\[See the AWS documentation website for more details\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/grafana/latest/userguide/v12-dash-managing-playlists.html) |
| TV mode (with auto fit panels) | [\[See the AWS documentation website for more details\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/grafana/latest/userguide/v12-dash-managing-playlists.html) |
| Kiosk mode | [\[See the AWS documentation website for more details\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/grafana/latest/userguide/v12-dash-managing-playlists.html) |
| Kiosk mode (with auto fit panels) | [\[See the AWS documentation website for more details\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/grafana/latest/userguide/v12-dash-managing-playlists.html) |
**Controlling a playlist**
You can control a playlist in **Normal** or **TV** mode after it has started, using the navigation bar at the top of your screen. Press the `Esc` key in your keyboard to stop the playlist.
| Button | Action |
| --- | --- |
| Next (double-right arrow) | Advances to the next dashboard. |
| Back (left arrow) | Returns to the previous dashboard. |
| Stop (square) | Ends the playlist, and exits to the current dashboard. |
| Cycle view mode (monitor icon) | Rotates the display of the dashboards in different view modes. |
| Time range | Displays data within a time range. It can be set to display the last 5 minutes up to 5 years ago, or a custom time range, using the down arrow. |
| Refresh (circle arrow) | Reloads the dashboard, to display the current data. It can be set to reload automatically every 5 seconds to 1 day, using the dropdown arrow. |
## Creating a playlist
=value.
**Examples**
Variables are listed in dropdown lists across the top of the screen. Select different variables to see how the visualizations change.
To see variable settings, navigate to **Dashboard Settings > Variables**. Click a variable in the list to see its settings.
Variables can be used in titles, descriptions, text panels, and queries. Queries with text that starts with `$` are templates. Not all panels will have template queries.
**Variable best practices**
+ Variable dropdown lists are displayed in the order they are listed in the variable list in **Dashboard settings**.
+ Put the variables that you will change often at the top, so they will be shown first (far left on the dashboard).
+ Variables preselect the topmost value in the dropdown list by default. If you want to choose an empty value instead, change the variable settings, as follows:
1. Select the **Include All Option** checkbox.
1. In the **Custom all value** field, enter the value `+`.
**Topics**
+ [Add and manage variables](v12-dash-variable-add.md)
+ [Inspect Variables](v12-dash-variable-add-inspect.md)
+ [Variable syntax](v12-dash-variable-syntax.md)
# Add and manage variables
[ ^ " ] + ) |chip=" (?[ ^ " ] + )/g
```
Would produce the following dropdown list:
```
Display Name Value
------------ -------------------------
enp216s0f0np0 0000:d7:00_0_0000:d8:00_0
enp216s0f0np1 0000:d7:00_0_0000:d8:00_1
enp216s0f0np2 0000:d7:00_0_0000:d8:00_2
enp216s0f0np3 0000:d7:00_0_0000:d8:00_3
```
Only `text` and `value` capture group names are supported.
# Inspect Variables
}` – This format gives you more control over how Grafana interprets values. For more information, see *Advanced variable format options*, following this list.
+ `[[varname]]` – Do not use. This syntax is old and has been deprecated. It will be removed in a future release.
Before queries are sent to your data source the query is *interpolated*, meaning the variable is replaced with its current value. During interpolation, the variable value might be *escaped* in order to conform to the syntax of the query language and where it is used. For example, a variable used in a regex expression in an InfluxDB or Prometheus query will be regex escaped.
**Advanced variable format options**
The formatting of the variable interpolation depends on the data source, but there are some situations where you might want to change the default formatting.
For example, the default for the MySQL data source is to join multiple values as comma-separated with quotes: `'server01','server02'`. In some cases, you might want to have a comma-separated string without quotes: `server01,server02`. You can make that happen with advanced variable formatting options listed below.
**General syntax**
Syntax: `${var_name:option}`
If any invalid formatting option is specified, then `glob` is the default/fallback option.
**CSV**
Formats variables with multiple values as a comma-separated string.
```
servers = [ 'test1', 'test2' ]
String to interpolate: '${servers:csv}'
Interpolation result: 'test1,test2'
```
**Distributed - OpenTSDB**
Formats variables with multiple values in custom format for OpenTSDB.
```
servers = [ 'test1', 'test2' ]
String to interpolate: '${servers:distributed}'
Interpolation result: 'test1,servers=test2'
```
**Doublequote**
Formats single- and multi-valued variables into a comma-separated string, escapes `"` in each value by `\"` and quotes each value with `"`.
```
servers = [ 'test1', 'test2' ]
String to interpolate: '${servers:doublequote}'
Interpolation result: '"test1","test2"'
```
**Glob - Graphite**
Formats variables with multiple values into a glob (for Graphite queries).
```
servers = [ 'test1', 'test2' ]
String to interpolate: '${servers:glob}'
Interpolation result: '{test1,test2}'
```
**JSON**
Formats variables with multiple values as a comma-separated string.
```
servers = [ 'test1', 'test2' ]
String to interpolate: '${servers:json}'
Interpolation result: '["test1", "test2"]'
```
**Lucene - Elasticsearch**
Formats variables with multiple values in Lucene format for Elasticsearch.
```
servers = [ 'test1', 'test2' ]
String to interpolate: '${servers:lucene}'
Interpolation result: '("test1" OR "test2")'
```
**Percentencode**
Formats single and multivalued variables for use in URL parameters.
```
servers = [ 'foo()bar BAZ', 'test2' ]
String to interpolate: '${servers:percentencode}'
Interpolation result: 'foo%28%29bar%20BAZ%2Ctest2'
```
**Pipe**
Formats variables with multiple values into a pipe-separated string.
```
servers = [ 'test1.', 'test2' ]
String to interpolate: '${servers:pipe}'
Interpolation result: 'test1.|test2'
```
**Raw**
Turns off data source-specific formatting, such as single quotes in an SQL query.
```
servers = [ 'test.1', 'test2' ]
String to interpolate: '${var_name:raw}'
Interpolation result: 'test.1,test2'
```
**Regex**
Formats variables with multiple values into a regex string.
```
servers = [ 'test1.', 'test2' ]
String to interpolate: '${servers:regex}'
Interpolation result: '(test1\.|test2)'
```
**Singlequote**
Formats single- and multi-valued variables into a comma-separated string, escapes `'` in each value by `\'` and quotes each value with `'`.
```
servers = [ 'test1', 'test2' ]
String to interpolate: '${servers:singlequote}'
Interpolation result: "'test1','test2'"
```
**Sqlstring**
Formats single- and multi-valued variables into a comma-separated string, escapes `'` in each value by `''` and quotes each value with `'`.
```
servers = [ "test'1", "test2" ]
String to interpolate: '${servers:sqlstring}'
Interpolation result: "'test''1','test2'"
```
**Text**
Formats single- and multi-valued variables into their text representation. For a single variable, it will just return the text representation. For multi-valued variables, it will return the text representation combined with `+`.
```
servers = [ "test1", "test2" ]
String to interpolate: '${servers:text}'
Interpolation result: "test1 + test2"
```
**Query parameters**
Formats single- and multi-valued variables into their query parameter representation. Example: `var-foo=value1&var-foo=value2`
```
servers = [ "test1", "test2" ]
String to interpolate: '${servers:queryparam}'
Interpolation result: "var-servers=test1&var-servers=test2"
```
# Assessing dashboard usage